Solar installations in India likely to fall 22% in 2018

Solar installations in India are expected to fall by 22 per cent to around 7.5 GW in the 2018, Mercom Communications India, a subsidiary of Mercom Capital Group has said. Mercom forecasts total installations to fall by 22 per cent year-on-year to approximately 7.5 GW in 2018, it said in a report. “After a very strong year the sector now finds itself beset with uncertainty. There are three different types of duties – safeguard, anti-dumping, and port – that the industry now has to wade through. More than the duties themselves, it is the uncertainty of not knowing what is coming and when that has left the industry in a very tough spot,” Mercom Capital Group CEO and Co-Founder Raj Prabhu said in a statement. Government agencies need to come out quickly and resolve these issues to maintain positive investor sentiment going forward, Prabhu said.

“The solar installation total was 123 per cent higher than the 4,313 MW added in 2016 and boosted the country’s cumulative solar capacity to 19.6 GW as of December 31, 2017,” the report said. Large-scale solar projects accounted for the bulk of installations in 2017, nabbing about 90 per cent of the total, with the remaining 10 per cent coming from rooftop solar installations, Mercom found. Approximately 10.6 GW of large-scale solar projects were under construction, with another 4.3 GW of tenders pending auction as of December 31, 2017.